You might not be aware that the families behind some of the biggest media empires served as inspiration for HBO’s award-winning drama series Succession, which is set to premiere on Sunday for its fourth and final season. We present you to the billionaire media families who inspired the hit TV series ‘Succession.’
The show centers on aging mogul Logan Roy, who runs the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, and his four adult children, who are squabbling over who will control his empire as his health deteriorates.
Media moguls and their families, including William Hearst, Robert and Rebekah Mercer of Breitbart, and others, were on the minds of showrunner Jesse Armstrong and the writers while developing the drama Succession, he claimed in an interview with HBO.
Meet the billionaire media families who inspired the hit TV series ‘Succession‘:
Rupert Murdoch
The Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins, and the New York Post are all owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is also the executive chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of Fox Corporation. Rupert Murdoch’s net worth as of 2023 was estimated by Forbes to be $17.3 billion.
Australian-born Murdoch received a chain of newspapers from his father when he passed away when he was 22 years old. Murdoch eventually grew into the UK and the US, buying publications like the San Antonio News, New York Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Murdoch paid the Bancroft family, who had owned Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal for $6 billion in 2007, and took over the business.
Like Succession patriarch Roy, Murdoch, 92, still runs his empire, where he has helmed News Corp. since 2013.4 In March 2019, Murdoch sold most of 21st Century Fox’s TV and movie assets to Disney for $71.3 billion.
Waystar Royco, the owner of Succession, also owns a number of tabloids and the conservative-leaning television network ATN, which is comparable to Fox News. The fictional media company from the show also runs a website called Vaulter that is comparable to Vice. James Murdoch, one of Murdoch’s sons, is a Vice Media board member and has held a small equity stake in the business since 2019.
Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son, serves as executive chairman and CEO of Fox and oversees its news, sports, and entertainment divisions.
Logan Roy of Succession has four children and has been married three times, compared to Murdoch’s six children, four marriages, and recent engagement.
The Hearst Family
The Hearst family of legacy media, with a net worth of $21 billion, was named one of America’s wealthiest families by Forbes in 2020. Hearst Corp., established in 1887 by William Randolph Hearst, is the owner of publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Additionally, Hearst owns nearly 260 magazines worldwide, 33 television stations, and stakes in several important networks like Lifetime, ESPN, and A&E. The five sons of William Hearst continued in their father’s footsteps. William R. Hearst III, Hearst’s grandson, is currently the company’s chairman.
The Sulzbergers
Similar to how the Roys in Succession kept their publishing legacy within the family, the Sulzbergers did the same. The sixth member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family to hold the position of New York Times publisher is Arther G. Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times Co. Logan Roy, the patriarch in Season 2 of Succession, sought to buy the Pierce family’s media empire, which Vanity Fair claimed was modeled after the Sulzbergers.
The Mercer Family
Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager, and political supporter, is thought to have a net worth of $125 million, according to Forbes.
Millions of dollars have been invested by him and his daughter Rebekah Mercer in the right-leaning website Breitbart News.
The Mercer family is well-known for its clout in politics and the media; Robert Mercer contributed $25 million to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The Redstones
ViacomCBS was under the control of Sumner Redstone, a member of another legacy media family, the Roys of Succession, which he bought in 1987. Prior to his passing in August of that year, the late media tycoon had a net worth of $2.6 billion as of April 2020, according to Forbes.
National Amusements, a private theatre chain that he also owned and inherited from his father. One of the largest media deals at the time was when Sumner’s Viacom paid $37.3 billion to acquire CBS, and in December 2019 it changed its name to ViacomCBS.
Shari Redstone serves as ViacomCBS’s non-executive chair.
Also read: HBO Succession finale review: Who wins and what you need to know
